


Return To How You Were

by Krasimer



Series: The Summerhold Chronicles [14]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Adult Danny Fenton, But sometimes you can, Danny is a good hero, Don't always need to forgive, Ghost half changes, Headcanon, Healing, In terms of his ghost half, In this AUs canon, It takes strength to forgive people sometimes, M/M, Sometimes you shouldn't, Vlad gets forgiven, Vlad gets therapy, Vlad heals after the stuff that was done to him, Vlad used to look more like Danny, anyway, danny helps him, getting better, slowest slow burn to ever burn, the relationship is still in the beginning stages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 19:18:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14754735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: Ghost halves were tied to emotional states.That was something Danny had learned a long time ago – when Dan had been a terror in his potential future and not anything even resembling an ally – and it was something he had practically tattooed on the inside of his eyelids. Keep himself on an even keel, keep himself steady, and his ghost half would remain steady as well. Whatever was felt by the human half was felt nearly one hundred times stronger by the ghost half.He had managed, through keeping his life mostly calm while human, to keep his ghost half in check.





	Return To How You Were

Ghost halves were tied to emotional states.

That was something Danny had learned a long time ago – when Dan had been a terror in his potential future and not anything even resembling an ally – and it was something he had practically tattooed on the inside of his eyelids. Keep himself on an even keel, keep himself steady, and his ghost half would remain steady as well. Whatever was felt by the human half was felt nearly one hundred times stronger by the ghost half.

He had managed, through keeping his life mostly calm while human, to keep his ghost half in check.

Danny Phantom, much like Danny Fenton, had human-looking features and eyes. Unlike some ghosts, he retained a human skin color and voice. 

He had never really given much thought to Vlad’s ghost half, before their lives had been thrown together. The ghost part of one of the only other members of his species and he hadn’t ever really thought about, had never given more than a cursory glance at him.

That was probably why it was so shocking.

“Vlad?” Danny held up his hands, still dressed in the clothes he’d been wearing when they’d decided to switch forms and spar as their ghost halves. “Vlad, are you okay?”

Red eyes looked from the mirror he held up to Danny, something very much like terror blotting out anything else. “I…” he swallowed, then focused back on the mirror. He raised a hand to his hair, almost stroking the strands of it where it moved like liquid around his shoulders. Danny should have thought about it before –

Anger and resentment had been a driving force in Vlad’s life, up until a few years ago.

Those two things, especially when paired together, would have made a ghost form change. The Plasmius standing in front of him now, panicked and terrified, looked so much more like the human half that Danny could have kicked himself for not thinking about it earlier. There was a fondness in his chest as he looked at Vlad, an urge to hold the other Halfa close and try to comfort him.

Vlad Plasmius looked, to put it simply, more like Vlad Masters. 

The spikes of hair that resembled horns were gone, as were the fangs. His skin was simply an alabaster white color, an inversion of the tan he normally had, except for where the tips of things were blue. His eyes were still red, but the red was contained to the same shape as a human eye. The clothes he wore as Plasmius had changed as well – the tunic had become a comfortable looking sweater, the leggings had become slacks, and the cape had become something resembling a cloak. It had a hood and a cowl sort of shape to it.

All in all, Vlad looked much more comfortable in his own skin, even with how scared he was.

Danny took a deep breath, then carefully reached out and put a hand on Vlad’s shoulders. “You hadn’t even noticed, had you?”

“No, Daniel, I had not,” Vlad sounded snarky again, just for a moment, and it reassured Danny somewhat. “…This is different. Why is this different?” he held up the small mirror he had managed to pull from somewhere. He was better at retrieving objects and manipulating them than Danny was. “I…The last time I looked like this, when in ghost form, was…A long time ago.”

“College?” Danny guessed after a few seconds.

Wordlessly, Vlad nodded, continuing to track his eyes over the changes he could see in the mirror. 

“Here,” Danny pulled the mirror out of his hands and set it down on a nearby table. “Take a deep breath, come with me.” He led the older Halfa out of the room and up towards his bedroom. When they got there, Danny pulled him over to the full-length mirror that was installed in one wall. “Take a better look at yourself,” he said quietly. 

“I look different,” Vlad said, his shoulders tense as he looked at himself. “I hadn’t thought I would ever look like this again. My eyes changed when I learned of your parents’ marriage occurring while I was still hospitalized. Resentment and anger and, I suppose,” he took a deep breath, reaching a hand out to brush over his reflection. “The deep-seated, deep-rooted bitterness of not getting what I wanted. Obsession. Fixation.”

Vlad shook his head, managing a small smile that wasn’t entirely happy but was also not devoid of cheer. “Insanity and just a hint of everything I never wanted to be. The seed of what changed me into who I was when you met me.”

“See,” Danny leaned against the wall, next to the mirror, and crossed his arms over his chest. “I like the guy I see in front of me, right now. I’m glad I know him.”

“You should be,” Vlad chuckled, glancing over at him. “You helped create him.”

Danny shook his head this time. “I don’t think so.”

“No?”

“I think I helped bring him back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Not that I think anyone is still reading this series, but I am still chugging along. It's a slow chug, but there I go.


End file.
